Question Advice please - valve headphone amps

Forester15

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Hello all. New member, first post. Please go easy!
Now, I can’t pretend that I know a huge amount about the audio world, which seems to get more complex every day, but I do try to make what I listen to sound as good as possible, and I tend to research a fair bit before I commit my limited funds to something.
I use a first model Astell & Kern AK70 as my music storage and playing device (mostly FLACs but with a fair amount of mp3s), with Shure SE425 IEMs for listening in public and Grado RS2e over ears for the privacy of my front room. I have to say that I am VERY happy with the sound I get, really VERY happy. I found that the AK70 wasn’t quite up to the job of driving the first good quality over ears I tried to use, a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pros, but the 32 ohm Grados are no problem and the mostly rock and folk on my player sounds great.
But - would the sound with either of the phones be improved with a valve amp in between? I hear talk of richer sound, ‘warmer’ is a word used a lot for the sound these amps produce. So what do people think? Not necessary? As I say, it sounds great now. Or is it worth trying one, and if so, what do you recommend?
Thanks.
 
The sound will be changed. Not better , probably technically worse. However, you may well prefer it. The Warmth that people attribute to valve amplifiers is due to added distortion which makes the sound sound fuller. If the volume is insufficient,then any good headphone amplifier will help make it better.
Now it is perfectly feasible to make a very low distortion valve amplifier,operating in Class A ,and for headphones, they will not be consuming a lot of power.
 
dark voice is a good amplifier to start with in the tube world.
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply guys. I’m thinking now that portability is going to be quite important so I might introduce some of that tubey warmth into my listening by going for something like a Little Bear B4-X.
 
Tube rolling is fun, but can get quite expensive if you buy an amp with a multitude of tubes to swap out.

I didn't really buy it until I bought a cheap headphone tube amp/dac and swapped out the stock tube for another I bought off ebay for a tenner. The difference in sound was amazing. I was sort of hooked for a while, but when you start looking at tubes that cost more then the actual hardware...it's time to stop. :D

A cheap way into tubes is going for something like this - Schiit Audio, Headphone amps and DACs made in USA. or something from Little Dot (ebay).

Further up the price range - Bottlehead Crack gets rave reviews and even further up something like Fireflies from Woo Audio.
 
The sound will be changed. Not better , probably technically worse. However, you may well prefer it. The Warmth that people attribute to valve amplifiers is due to added distortion which makes the sound sound fuller. If the volume is insufficient,then any good headphone amplifier will help make it better.
Now it is perfectly feasible to make a very low distortion valve amplifier,operating in Class A ,and for headphones, they will not be consuming a lot of power.
I had used solid state amplifiers for most of my life but took the plunge a few years ago and changed to a Valve Amplifier, a small Nobsound MS10D. I was stunned at the improvement in sound quality despite the price being only £100. I now have two valve amplifiers having sold the Nobsound some time ago. I currently use an "idyam.zeus" 8 valve amp and a Chinese made valve amplifier which has 6 valves. Both Amplifiers have a much more acceptable "Warm" sound than any solid state amplifier I have ever used. Regarding distortion I am not an expert but have never noticed any degradation of sound quality. I also love looking at my valve amplifiers as they look so nice, much nicer than a black box does, particularly when switched on with the valves glowing. I will personally never return to a solid state amplifier. I am so happy with the sound of my valves. They are also a good talking point with people who have never seen, let alone used valves.
 
I agree with the above comments - the valve sound is just different. The technology appears to create pleasing harmonics so that, even when distorting, things sound nice and lush - where transitors just start getting harsh. If you are into hard rock/thrash metal you *may* find valves lack some attack but the good news is that you can change stock valves and the different sorts are sometimes very different indeed. Not familiar with the jan5899 type in the Little Bear but they seem similar to the 12AX7, which is potentially good news, although they are not interchangeable with the 12AX7 due to a different pin layout.

I have a Little Dot MKIII myself for headphone listening and I like it (with some Siemens valves in it) but portable it is definitely not. I didn't even know that there were portable valve headphone amps!

I think the Little Bear would be worth a go - given the reviews and especially the price. Wonder how long the battery lasts?? Does it get hot? I can fry an egg on my Little Dot and I wonder sometimes how it has not fried itself to bits.
 
The valve saga never fails to amuse me. Do you not realise that if changing a component ..eg the valve,the sound changes then it was distorted before or after or both times?.
 
The valve saga never fails to amuse me. Do you not realise that if changing a component ..eg the valve,the sound changes then it was distorted before or after or both times?.
Whether you change the original valves in your Amplifier or not, what really matters is the end result and whether you are happy with the sound produced. In my case I have never changed the original valves in any of my Amplifiers but at some stage I probably will experiment. Are my valve Amplifiers producing a distorted sound?. I really don't know and I'm not really interested. All I can say is all of the valve Amplifiers I have used have produced "FOR ME" a much more agreeable sound quality than any previous solid state Amplifiers I have owned.
 
Having tube amps and not swapping out the tubes is sacrilege! ;)
 
Having tube amps and not swapping out the tubes is sacrilege! ;)
Why is it sacrilege to not swap out the tubes in a tube amp? If you are satisfied with the tubes as supplied with an amplifier why go to the expense of purchasing replacements other than for experimental reasons,to see what if any difference it makes to the sound quality.
 
Why is it sacrilege to not swap out the tubes in a tube amp? If you are satisfied with the tubes as supplied with an amplifier why go to the expense of purchasing replacements other than for experimental reasons,to see what if any difference it makes to the sound quality.
The post is quite obviously meant in good jest. It is very well known for audio enthusiasts to "roll tubes", but of course that is not compulsory and if you are satisfied then that is what matters
 
If you are planning to get a valve amp, an OTL one will likely not work favourable with the low impedance Grado, but should work very well with the DT990 (providing they are 250ohm or above).

I found my Feliks Audio Espressivo MKII to work quite well with Grados, but it still altered the frequency response too much for my liking (due to high output impedance).

I have just got a Eufonika H5 and that is sounding really good with the Beyerdynamic T1 2nd Gen but doesn't sound half as good with my HiFiMan HE-500 due to not supplying enough current.

The cheap valve amps you find are usually hybrids with a valve input stage and solid state output. The cheap little bear ones tend to be pretty bad, so I would highly suggest you look into the Little Dot MKII, Darkvoice models, Garage 1217 or Eufonika.
 

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